


Ashes

by rainier_day



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, ep 55 spoilers, widomaukweek2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 08:46:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19147582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainier_day/pseuds/rainier_day
Summary: There’s a whisper in his ear and he can sense the beginning of a spell being woven around him. The magic winds around him and Caleb thinks to fight it but then a brief glance back and he sees the impossible.





	Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Day 7: Ashes
> 
> I've been thinking about this one for a while now so I'm glad I got the chance to write it down

He tastes ashes in his mouth.

There’s a whisper in his ear and he can sense the beginning of a spell being woven around him. The magic winds around him and Caleb thinks to fight it but then a brief glance back and he sees the impossible.

Lavender skin, horns curled around the ears, and mischievous crimson eyes. There are beautiful jewels dangling from the ears, the horns, and even the navel, all glimmering and captivating. The features look more effeminate than he remembers (and he remembers every detail) but that hardly matters.

The magic wraps around him, tighter and tighter still and he doesn’t struggle. He doesn’t fight. His eyes are transfixed on this figure, but it doesn’t let his gaze linger for too long.

Swooping behind him, it wraps its arms daintily around his shoulders and whispers, “You’ve been thinking of me, haven’t you? You’ve missed me so very much, my poor wizard.”

The voice is wrong. The words are wrong, but all he registers is _Mollymauk_.

Caleb nods and its arms squeeze him a little tighter. “My poor, handsome wizard. I’ve missed you too. You want me to come home, don’t you? You’ve been looking for a way to bring me back, haven’t you?”

He nods again. “I have. Soon.”

Nott gives him a strange look. “Caleb? Are you alright?”

“I am fine, Nott,” he answers automatically, barely paying attention.

“There’s no time, my beautiful wizard. My poor, tragic man. There’s no time to wait. Don’t you know?” it whispers in his ear. “They don’t want me back. They’ll stop you. They’ll call it unnatural and wrong. They won’t let me come back.”

Brows furrowing, it’s a scenario he’s considered before—that the others would disapprove. But he always figured their love for their fallen friend would win them out in the end.

A hand caresses his face and Caleb leans into the warmth a little. “Mollymauk,” he breathes, his voice hardly a whisper.

“Mollymauk,” it repeats as if testing the name on its tongue. “A mollymawk indeed. Darling, _dearest_ , they do not love me as you do. You know this to be true.”

Caleb nods. They all love Molly in their own way ( _loved_ , a voice whispers) but sometimes, maybe save for Yasha, he feels like he’s the only one that still carries the weight of that love.

But he has a _plan_.

He’s made the calculations and considered the risks, and if he gets everything right then none of them will be without Molly for much longer.

Lips press up to his ear. “They will not understand. They will stand in your way—in _our_ way. And I just want so badly to come home. _Please_ bring me back, darling. Don’t let them get in our way. Not when you’re _so_ close.”

Mind made up, Caleb nods. “What do I do?”

“It’s simple. So very simple, my darling. All you have to do is…” a hand reaches down to guide his, bringing it up with his palm facing the entrance of the cave, “ _light them up, pretty_.”

\--

The taste of ashes don’t leave his mouth even when Yasha snaps him out of the spell. The pain is searing but enough to clear his mind. He watches the succubus fly away from him with a snarl, its face contorted with rage, and he wonders how he ever mistook the fiend for Mollymauk.

Nott gives him a potion and he nods his thanks to Yasha. The potion heals the worst of the injury, but even worse than that is the shame. Shame at hurting his friends. Shame at allowing some monster to defile and manipulate his memory of Molly like that.

He should’ve known better—should’ve—

“Caleb, do you need another potion? Does it still hurt? I’ve got more!” Nott cries.

Snapped out of his deprecating thoughts, Caleb shakes his head. “Nein, I am fine now. Danke...and sorry.”

Nott frowns. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

Caleb smiles wryly. “You know very well that that is not true, Nott.”

Focusing on the battle, he drops his spell and hastens Beau.

The battle doesn’t get any better as it progresses. Yasha’s facing them down with vacant eyes and her sword in her hands, and all Caleb can wonder is if she sees a familiar purple tiefling around her shoulders too.

Then the large fiend strikes at him with its claws.

More pain.

He looks down and sees blood on his hands.

And then all he sees is darkness.

\--

“Caleb? Mister Caleb, are you with me?”

He opens his eyes to see a familiar face staring back at him and jolts up and scampers back, steeling his mind. It may know his name this time, but he knows all too well now that fiends have a way of using this face against him.

Tilting his head to the side, the tiefling smiles dryly. “Not exactly the warm welcome I was expecting. But I guess you did just get charmed and possessed by a fiend—that looked _nothing_ like me, by the way.”

It’s the indignant tone that has him blinking and reconsidering. “Mollymauk?”

The tiefling smiles more brightly this time. “Ah, good. You’re back with me!”

Looking around, he sees the familiar colours of the tent they all fought in back in Trostenwald. Unlike their fight, it’s bright and empty, and he’s almost certain that there’s sunlight streaming in through the seams. “Where are we?”

“Why, The Fletching and Moondrop Travelling Carnival of Curiosities, of course!” Molly tells him, helping him to his feet so that they’re face to face. “I wanted something familiar to wait in. It was either this or that tavern in Zadash.”

“To wait in? For what?” Caleb asks.

Crimson eyes narrow slightly and crinkle at the corners as the tiefling grins and points at him. “For you! Or, for any of you. It took a little while, but I think I’ve finally got it set up the way I like it.”

Caleb frowns. “Have you been waiting alone here, Mollymauk?”

Molly’s smile dims a little. “Not always. Sometimes Vax visits. He works for the Raven Queen. He likes watching what you guys get up to too.” Then he shrugs. “And now you’re here—not for too long this time, I hope.”

“This time? I’ve been here before then?” he asks.

“You always catch on so quickly,” Molly praises him, running a hand through his hair. “It’s certainly not the first time. The Mighty Nein have a pretty nasty streak going when it comes to nearly dying. I think I’ve seen everyone except Fjord and Yasha, which, let’s be fair, is to be expected. She’s _Yasha_. There’s a reason she’s the charm.”

He arches a brow and looks around in wonder. “I have a pretty good memory. Why can I not remember these visits?”

A soft laugh. “You don’t have to be modest around me. You have a perfect memory, Caleb, but this isn’t your world. This is no place for the living, so the living do not remember it...that’s what Vax told me anyway. He even put on a voice for it.”

“So you have been watching us alone,” he says, something akin to sadness settling in his heart. Reaching out, he cups the tiefling’s face and runs his thumb over the edges of one of the peacock feathers. “I am sorry, Mollymauk.”

Molly nuzzles his hand and kisses his palm. “What for? You apologize to me every time and every time you seem to come up with something new to be sorry for.”

“I have not been working hard enough,” he confesses. “I have a plan, you see. I have the spells and calculations, but there’s still something missing. I just need—”

He’s cut off with a kiss. “You don’t _need_ to do anything, Caleb. If anything, you’ve been working too hard. This is probably the most rest you’ve gotten in a while and you’re literally on the verge of death, dear.”

Caleb leans forward and kisses the other back, his arms wrapping around the tiefling’s waist. “But I can bring you _back_ , Mollymauk. If this spell works, you won’t be alone here anymore. I can bring you _home_.”

“I don’t want to come back to your corpse,” Molly tells him between kisses, one arm thrown around his neck, pulling him closer. “Caleb, promise me you’ll look after yourself first.”

“But I won’t remember it.”

Molly smiles wryly. “Nothing escapes that beautiful brain of yours, does it? No, you won’t remember any of this. But hearing you say it will make me feel all the better for it.”

He nods, wrapping his arms a little tighter. “Then I promise, Mollymauk. And I promise to bring you back. That goal will not be forgotten, this too, I promise.”

Throwing his head back in laughter, Molly presses a kiss to his forehead and tsks. “So many promises, Mister Caleb.”

“Anything to get you back,” Caleb tells him.

“And make no mistake, I _do_ want to come back,” Molly returns. “That fiend did a horrible impression of me, but it got a few things right. I’ve missed you terribly and I want to come home.”

“I _will_ bring you back,” he whispers. “I swear it.”

Molly smiles. “I don’t doubt it, Caleb. You can do anything you set that gorgeous mind of yours to.” Glancing up, his shoulders drop a little as his hands slide back to his side and he takes a step back. “But it looks like it’s time for you to go. Thank the gods. Someone must’ve finally gotten to you. I love you, Caleb, but this is no place for the living.”

Caleb blinks and glances around, hearing the faint whisper of Nott’s voice in the back of his head, screaming for him to wake up. Quickly pressing another kiss to Molly’s lips, he whispers, “I love you, Mollymauk. That much will not change no matter which realm I am in.”

Then he disappears in a flash of light before he can get a reply.

As he comes to, the memories fade despite how desperately he tries to cling onto them. By the time Caleb opens his eyes and sits up with Nott’s help, the taste of ashes lingers and all he feels is a deep, aching longing for someone long since lost.

But he has a _plan._

He’s made the calculations and considered the risks, and if he gets everything right then none of them will be without Molly for much longer...

**Author's Note:**

> Right after, Caleb, Fjord, _and_ Caduceus suddenly drop in and Molly's just like ????? What is this? A picnic?


End file.
